...... I'm pretty sure that they are not giving cablecard customers new channels in my market, but can't find anyone competent enough to even understand the question.

For what it's worth, I called BHN about a week ago to see what they said if I tried to set up 'new' service with a cable card. The response: Yes, you can have the card, but you will not receive all the channels.

So, apparently at least some of the CSR's are getting the message of the issue with the standalone cards (here in Central FL).

__________________
S3
HD
Series 2
Series 2 DT
Assorted other humans and animals

I just called Bright House to set up a Cable Card install for my new Tivo HD (Seminole County). The Customer Service (407-291-2500) rep said (I asked her twice, so it's a quote): "Bright House no longer provides Cable Cards". I told her it was on the website (http://cfl.mybrighthouse.com/custome...default.aspx); she claimed the policy had changed. I told her it was an FCC regulation; no response. I asked her to speak to a supervisor; she refused. All she would do is let me file a complaint, and said someone would call me.

Does anyone know a way to bypass the 1st level reps and reach someone knowledgeable?

I just called Bright House to set up a Cable Card install for my new Tivo HD (Seminole County). The Customer Service (407-291-2500) rep said (I asked her twice, so it's a quote): "Bright House no longer provides Cable Cards". I told her it was on the website (http://cfl.mybrighthouse.com/custome...default.aspx); she claimed the policy had changed. I told her it was an FCC regulation; no response. I asked her to speak to a supervisor; she refused. All she would do is let me file a complaint, and said someone would call me.

Does anyone know a way to bypass the 1st level reps and reach someone knowledgeable?

I'd call back and hope you reach a more knowledgeable rep. the second time around.

I'd call back and hope you reach a more knowledgeable rep. the second time around.

Thanks for the tip.

I called twice this am, finally got someone who could help me. They still don't understand what an M-Card is, but at least they put it on the work order.

I am a little irked by the $21.95 install charge. I am less than a half mile from the BH office, and I have been able to pick up their DVR there at no charge. You'd think the Cable Card was some huge issue.

It IS a huge issue. Bright House has a track record of going out of their way to divert you from using your TIVO. They want you on their own DVR service and their CS reps will treat you like crap, feign ignorance or just blatantly lie to you in order to discourage your TIVO use. Despite what they claim, this HAS TO BE policy. It's too common, just look through this thread.

Expect at LEAST 2 more service calls before your TIVO is working (or at least MORE hoops to jump through).

My experience with BH with getting an M card for a TivoHD is that it is much easier to use their online support [http://cfl.mybrighthouse.com -> Contact Us -> Digital Cable -> Email Us]. I've used this method twice and both times on the first correspondence they set the appointment up with no issues. I would suggest others to do the same [at least for the C.FL area]. In fact, just this past Tuesday I emailed them requesting for a Thu morn appointment and they set it up between 8-10. Tech was here @ 9:30 ready to go.

Originally Posted by ryanjo
I just called Bright House to set up a Cable Card install for my new Tivo HD (Seminole County). The Customer Service (407-291-2500) rep said (I asked her twice, so it's a quote): "Bright House no longer provides Cable Cards".

After 2 more calls, I got a customer service rep who made me an appointment for a cablecard install...I didn't say the word "Tivo". The installer was pleasant, but couldn't get the "Digital Tier" stations to work (above 100 digital SD, and above 1300 HD). He gave me the name of a field support specialist, Sharif Keaton, who I called the next day. This guy is the real deal. He made the diagnosis of the problem and corrected it while I was on the phone. It took him about 2 minutes.

I'm giving his telephone number if anyone else is in the same situation. Please do not flame him about Bright House policies! This guy wants to help.

I had to share this one. One of my cablecards in my Series 3 quit receiving digital channels a couple of weeks ago. I checked the SubExpireTime in Diagnostics, and it's the day it quit working. I tried to get the head end to fix it, but they claimed it they tried to 'authorize' and 're-hit' it to no avail. They set up the earliest available appointment a week out. They said they'd be there by 3 (since I was leaving town later that day), but that turned out to be 'an estimate', not a guarantee. Okay, the next available appointment is a week out (again).

The tech arrives today. I tried to persuade him gently that it was simply an authorization issue, but they want him to swap out the card. Fine, we stick in the card (which gives cablecard issues) so we reboot. He calls in the new Serial #, Host ID and CableCard ID. Still the same issue. Test Channels says no channels available, and I'm just getting analog stations and Network HD. He finally calls another tech who's familiar with cable cards. I overhear their conversation where he flatly states that dispatch doesn't know anything about cablecards. I'm also told that support doesn't really either. The only way to do it themselves the next day, just write down all of the information (serial number, host id and cable card id). Also, the worst thing he could do is swap the card if the other one was receiving a CableCard ID and Host ID. Which we just did. And the only fix that he really knew of was to remove everything from the system (I gulp realizing I still have one working cablecard) and add it back. So they are going to try that tomorrow. Another day off work. Great.

This is about my 12th tech visit in my 1 1/2 years of cablecards. Every tech visit is something that can (and eventually is) fixed on head end. I'm patient and it's summer. But man I wish DirectTV would partner with Tivo again or something....

I recently got CableCARD installed from BHN in Longwood but I'm not receiving all the HD channels. I know that BHN in Central Florida is starting to use SDV (switched digital video); is that what is causing the problem? The channels I receive are all the broadcast stations, TNTHD, TBSHD, ESPN2HD, the 4 summer Olympics channels (soccer, basketball, Korean, and Chinese), HD Theater, HistoryHD, and HGTVHD. All the rest, which is quite a few, do not work. Is this normal?

I recently got CableCARD installed from BHN in Longwood but I'm not receiving all the HD channels. I know that BHN in Central Florida is starting to use SDV (switched digital video); is that what is causing the problem? The channels I receive are all the broadcast stations, TNTHD, TBSHD, ESPN2HD, the 4 summer Olympics channels (soccer, basketball, Korean, and Chinese), HD Theater, HistoryHD, and HGTVHD. All the rest, which is quite a few, do not work. Is this normal?

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I contacted Sharif Keaton, the tech mentioned a couple of posts up, with the problem. This is the response I received:

I'm glad to be of assistance. You are correct in the fact that we are in the process of launching switched video. There should only be 5 HD channels and 2 SD (standard Definition) you would not receive with the cable card (s).

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I just got a tivo HD and have an install scheduled for Tuesday. I don't understand why would they make it so that a tivo will not receive all channels, we are still paying $6 a month for the cable cards, how are we a different customer than one that rents BH STB? Or is it the fact that you use Tivo and not their HD DVR?
I like the science channel in particular in it will suck if I can't get it with tivo

I just got a tivo HD and have an install scheduled for Tuesday. I don't understand why would they make it so that a tivo will not receive all channels, we are still paying $6 a month for the cable cards, how are we a different customer than one that rents BH STB? Or is it the fact that you use Tivo and not their HD DVR?
I like the science channel in particular in it will suck if I can't get it with tivo

I have a Tivo HD cablecard install this morning from Bright House in Largo, FL. All channels will tune in without issues "except" PPV and Video On Demand channels.

Also a few of my contacts have said that BHN Tampa Bay is currently testing a Cisco switched digital video tuning adapter and they plan to mail a letter to all customers with a cable card on their account to give them a chance to pickup or schedule an appointment to have it installed "before" they add any channels via SDV. I've also been told (seen it in action too) that via the SDV tuning device Tivo HD boxes will work with VOD but using the current VOD interface and not a Tivo interface. I'm talking about the interface you see when tuning to say channel 200 not the guide or software interface on BHN boxes.

You can view all the subscription VOD listings and once you select a show to play the SDV tuning device sends the request to the headend and the headend sends the frequency information back to the SDV tuning adapter to tell the Tivo box "how" to tune into the VOD showing.

I've been told however that VOD support is still very buggy (it looked that way too) and may take a while to offer if at all but there is hope folks for VOD support. However any PPV and VOD content that requires one time charges "will NOT" be supported for a very long time if at all on current HD Tivo boxes. Simply put getting all of this to work with their billing system seems like a nightmare until full OCAP tru2way support comes to a new Tivo HD DVR near us.

The reason free On Demand and premiums on demand will work is because they are treated as any other TV channel in your lineup. They are unlimited usage channels that are part of a subscription package so the channels themselves (ie HBO On Demand channel 200) can be authorized via the cable card and because each show doesn't have a per show charge they don't need to setup the billing system to communicate back and forth with the SDV tuning adapter.

I hope I explained this without causing more confusion but regardless this is good and promising information that is for sure. Also I'm getting from what I'm told two single stream cable cards which cost 2.95/month each and installation is free of charge. I'm hoping the tech shows up with a multistream card but I'm not counting on it nor would I be upset either. I'm sure they would charge the same six bucks a month for the M-Card.

Thanks. Please let us know if you get all channels after the install. I asked 2 diff csrs about m-cards and was told they only have s-cards. I would imagine they would not want to give up $2.99, or they will start charging $6 for an m-card as you said

So how did the install go? Do you get all channels, including Science HD channel?

Sorry for posting very late but I was very busy the last couple of days. It seems that both BHN and Knight Communications warehouses didn't have any cable cards in stock during my appointment. So I got a 20 buck credit on my bill and I now have the first job of the morning from a supervisor on Tuesday.

I'll report how things go assuming anything goes at all but hey another missed appointment or a show with no cable cards will result in another 20 buck bill credit so for all I care they can schedule another three times without cable cards on hand. Heck I could use another free months services lol.

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Well I ended up getting everything installed and working but with quite a few hurdles though. First the tech (Knight Enterprises) rep (not the tech) called to inform me the tech would be coming within half an hour. The tech called me to help find my apartment which was good as its a bit hard to find. He showed up and I found out he was doing his first cable card install. He followed the Tivo install manual quite well and ended up getting one tuner to work. The cards both showed as being married, authorized and a powerkey status of ready so I figured I would let him on his way and figure out the account reason for this.

While I was on the phone with a very good rep from BHN we decided to just start over via taking out the cards and doing everything over. This was my first big surprise. The first card I took out via Slot 1 was an S-Card. I next went to pull the card from Slot 2 only to find out it was an M-Card.

This was a big red flag right away as an M-Card "will NOT" work in Slot 2 of an HD Tivo and it also can cause conflicts with the S-Card in Slot 1 causing many tuning issues. Once I noticed this I informed the rep about the issue and we went on to install just one cablecard (M-Card) into Slot 1.

After doing this and getting the card married I ended getting all the channels I ordered on "both" tuners nearly right away. A few channels (mostly on tuner 2) took a couple of minutes to work.

The only channels that don't work are UHD, Discovery HD Theater, MGMHD, HDNet, HDNet Movies and Mojo. This I'm sure is because I don't order the HD Pak. I however thought that Discovery HD Theater wasn't part of the HD Pak anymore and the rep said my type of account (via promo) didn't get that channel converted into the digital tier so she will be looking into that for me but its not a big rush for me.

All in all they didn't seem to be trying to make things a hassle and I believe they really did run out of cable cards because it was the last day of the week for cable card installs. I will say this much if they ever started charging they better damn sure have techs "just" as good as I am if not better. For the most part I did all the work "and" I did all the troubleshooting as well.

To the poster that asked these questions I'll answer below.

1. Yes I can view Science Channel HD without problems.

2. I did get an M-Card (maybe by mistake though) and they have the M-Card in the system as costing 2.99/month not counting the 95 cent digital outlet fee which is charged per "hardware unit" not per tuner or cablecard.

So this means that my install was for one hardware unit (ie HD Tivo) so I'll be charged 95 cents total regardless of whether my install included 2 S-Cards or 1 M-Card.

All in all I'm one very happy camper right now looking forward to shaving 20 bucks off my bill once I return their POS HD DVR box.

Ok. The installer showed up today with 3 M-cards(even though the CSRs said they don't have M-cards)
We set up the first one, they activated it, the channels above 99 came up ok including HD, but the channels below 99 were still in analog and fuzzy, low quality. I showed him the difference on the same channels but on BHN STB and they looked perfect. So he called them, spoke to a few different people, none of them were able to help. He then put in another M card, pairded it, same thing, everything below 99 is from the analog lineup. More talking on the phone and nothing. His supervisor suggested, that he comes back with two S cards, but I refused. It seems like Brighthouse doesn't care much about it's customers using Cable Cards. I told him that I read here about similar problem and that they need to "Remap" the CCs to pick up the digital versions of those channels, as the STB does, he told that to whoever he talked to at Brighthouse but they were not able to help.

I will try to call them and see if this can be resolved, even though I highly doubt it.

I will also try to see if Tivo can be of any help, but that's unlikely since the issue seems to originate from BHN's network.

I kept my STB just in case. The tech said that even in analog the channels should not look as bad, my signal level was kind of low, -10db. I will schedule an appointment to have an amp installed, and if after that the analog channels are still crappy I may return the Tivo, even though I don't want to.\

Has anyone with Brighthouse had a similar problem with channels below 99, and if you managed to resolve it, how did you do it, and who did you talk to?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!

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EDIT
Longhorn
Do you now have one Mcard in slot 1, and one S card in slot two?
Are you receiving channels below 99 in analog, you can usually tell the difference, they look dark, grainy, etc.

2. I did get an M-Card (maybe by mistake though) and they have the M-Card in the system as costing 2.99/month not counting the 95 cent digital outlet fee which is charged per "hardware unit" not per tuner or cablecard.

Argh! I have called BHN many times in the past few months asking if they carry M-Cards yet and the answer has always been no. I would love to at least get an M-Card in my THD, I know I'm stuck with the two S-Cards in the S3.

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Has anyone with Brighthouse had a similar problem with channels below 99, and if you managed to resolve it, how did you do it, and who did you talk to?
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!

I have tried several times to get Brighthouse to map AD simulcast to cableCARD. Once you get someone who understands what you are talking about, they end up just saying that they are not implementing it on CableCARDs.

I wonder if they are using SDV for the AD simulcast. I have tried to figure it out on the STB diagnostic screens, but the SDV pages are not populated.

I pretty much gave up since most of the channels I watch have a HD version in 600s & 700s. It would be nice though. WGN looks like crap on my TiVo, but looks great on the STB, since I do like to watch a few Cubs games.

They just started digging for FIOS conduit in the neighborhood a block away. I'll just wait it out and switch to FIOS when it's available (hopefully by next year).

I have tried several times to get Brighthouse to map AD simulcast to cableCARD. Once you get someone who understands what you are talking about, they end up just saying that they are not implementing it on CableCARDs.

I wonder if they are using SDV for the AD simulcast. I have tried to figure it out on the STB diagnostic screens, but the SDV pages are not populated.

I pretty much gave up since most of the channels I watch have a HD version in 600s & 700s. It would be nice though. WGN looks like crap on my TiVo, but looks great on the STB, since I do like to watch a few Cubs games.

They just started digging for FIOS conduit in the neighborhood a block away. I'll just wait it out and switch to FIOS when it's available (hopefully by next year).

Eric

If it's SDV, that makes sense and I guess that would explain why the Tivo would not tune to those channels, not until it gets a Tuning adapter.

I was also lookint to Fios, they keep sending me flyers for internet/cable/phone $65 first 3mnt and then $99 for the first year (plus FREE dvr for 1 year) but I haven't switched yet because their HD lineup is kind of poor right now. They say they will have up to 100HD channels by year end, so we will see.

BTW, when I got the first letter from them with the $65 offer, I called Brighthouse to see if I can get something free, was hoping for a free DVR....
They have nonexistent retention policy. The first guy that I talked to almost said, you can try Fios for 3 months and comeback after, I could not believe my ears, and that coming from sales....

....I wonder if they are using SDV for the AD simulcast. I have tried to figure it out on the STB diagnostic screens, but the SDV pages are not populated....Eric

I live in Saint Petersburg, and can receive the lower AD channels just fine on my S3 THX. I don't think BH is using SDV for them, otherwise there would be a lot of folks complaining. Mind you the AD channels look pretty bad compared to HD channels, especially if you have a large screen.

If guarh's signal strength is -10dbm, that's pretty low; let us know if an amp improves the situation. I had a similar situation; BH came out and cleaned the connections at their box out on the street, and removed some old drop cables that were causing degradation of the signal.

I just have one card in slot 1 which is an M-Card. I don't have a card in Slot 2 just so you know. Also my analog channels look for the most part okay and I'm assuming they aren't digital simulcasts because when I schedule a recording on any channel below 100 it has the option to select the quality (ie low quality or best quality etc). When I schedule a recording on any channel above 100 (HD and SD) I don't have the option to pick the quality at all.

Either way I don't see much of a difference in picture quality on channels below 100 on the Tivo compared to my old 8300HD box from Bright House.

I live in Saint Petersburg, and can receive the lower AD channels just fine on my S3 THX. I don't think BH is using SDV for them, otherwise there would be a lot of folks complaining. Mind you the AD channels look pretty bad compared to HD channels, especially if you have a large screen.

I just compare by switching between the cable stb and the tivo on the same outlet/same tv and there is night and day difference, the stb picture is so smooth and nice, on tivo its dark and grainy.
So, you do receive the digital versions of those channels? (I am not sure what AD means)

We will see if the amp. will fix things on Friday. The CSR said he will send me Brighthouse tech after I told them that the contractors that visited the last two times did a so so job. I kept my STB for now, just in case the tech doesn't agree about the quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LonghornXP2005

I just have one card in slot 1 which is an M-Card. I don't have a card in Slot 2 just so you know. Also my analog channels look for the most part okay and I'm assuming they aren't digital simulcasts because when I schedule a recording on any channel below 100 it has the option to select the quality (ie low quality or best quality etc). When I schedule a recording on any channel above 100 (HD and SD) I don't have the option to pick the quality at all.

Either way I don't see much of a difference in picture quality on channels below 100 on the Tivo compared to my old 8300HD box from Bright House.

Thanks for the info. Seems like you are in the same situation but at least your signal levels are good enough. I will make a few pics when I get home tonight and will post them, so you can see how much difference there is.
And yes, SD does look ugly on a HD TV, but Brighthouse stb makes me realize how bad my analog signal is.

I live in Saint Petersburg, and can receive the lower AD channels just fine on my S3 THX. I don't think BH is using SDV for them, otherwise there would be a lot of folks complaining. Mind you the AD channels look pretty bad compared to HD channels, especially if you have a large screen.

So you are getting the Analog-Digital Simulcast (AD or ADS) of the lower channels? If you pick to record, say BayNews9 on channel 9, does it ask for the recording quality (Best, etc.)? If it doesn't, you're getting the Analog-Digital Simulcast. If it doesn't, then it's analog. You can also tell by the DVR Diagnostic screen. It will show analog or digital tuning. I also know that some channels in the lower tier are only available in analog (I think channel 4, for example.)

I live in Largo/Pinellas Park unincorporated Pinellas.

If you do get the ADS channels, I'm going to need to make a few calls to BH again!